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  1. Trends in day surgery...
  2. Trends in day surgery rates
Dr Foster's Case Notes

Trends in day surgery rates

BMJ 2005; 331 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.331.7520.803 (Published 06 October 2005) Cite this as: BMJ 2005;331:803
  1. Paul Aylin,
  2. Susan Williams,
  3. Brian Jarman,
  4. Alex Bottle
  1. Dr Foster Unit, Imperial College

    The NHS Plan predicts that 75% of all elective operations will be carried out as day cases.w1According to the British Association of Day Surgery, patients overwhelmingly endorse day surgery and it provides timely treatment, less risk of cancellation, lower incidence of hospital acquired infections, and an earlier return to normal activities.w2We looked at rates of day surgery, using the Audit Commission's collection of 25 operationsw3by using hospital episode statistics between 1996-7 and 2003-4.

    The bottom line

    • Day surgery rates have continued to rise steadily over the past eight years

    • Wide variation between trusts still exists

    • Day case rates have decreased for some procedures

    We looked at trends over time and compared rates across acute trusts. Overall, the proportion of procedures carried out as day surgery increased from 55.7% to 67.2% over the period. Although most individual procedures showed an increase in day surgery rates, arthroscopy, laparoscopy, myringotomy, and transurethral resection of bladder tumour all had lower rates in 2003-4 than in 1996-7. The procedure that showed the greatest percentage decline in total admissions was termination of pregnancy, which dropped 44.4% from 68 102 in 1996-7 to 37 887 in 2003-4. This may reflect an increasing number of medical terminations. Cataract operations showed the greatest increase in total admissions, rising 94.8% from 148 492 in 1996 to 289 252 in 2003-4. Day surgery rates varied considerably between the acute non-specialist trusts, ranging from 40.2% to 82.7%, with only 12% of trusts carrying out 75% or more of the Audit Commission's collection of procedures as day cases.

    The 2005 Healthcare Commission report on day surgery confirmed that day surgery units are not being used to their maximum capacity,w4although both rates and numbers increased steadily between 1996-7 and 2003-4. Performance varies widely between trusts; some of this variation might be explained by inconsistent coding, particularly if day surgery cases are miscoded as inpatients. Differences in case mix between hospitals is another possible explanation. Our conclusions, however, are much the same as those of the Healthcare Commission, that day surgery rates are continuing to improve, yet the range of performance between NHS trusts remains wide, leaving considerable scope for the poorer performers to improve.

    Table 1

    Trends in day surgery admissions for the 10 most common procedures in the Audit Commission's collection of day surgery procedures*

    View this table:
    Table 2

    Trends in percentage of day surgery admissions for procedures in the Audit Commission's collection of 25 procedures

    View this table:

    The basic figures

    • The day surgery rate for all procedures combined within the collection of 25 procedures rose from 55.7% in 1996 to 67.2% in 2003

    • Day surgery rates for arthroscopy, laparoscopy, myringotomy with or without grommets, and transurethral resection of bladder tumour decreased significantly; for all other procedures, the day surgery to inpatient admission ratio increased significantly

    • The procedure that showed the greatest percentage decline in total admissions was termination of pregnancy, which dropped 44.4% (from 68 102 in 1996/7 to 37 887 in 2003/4); cataract operations showed the greatest increase in total admissions (including day surgery), rising 94.8% from 148 492 in 1996 to 289 252 in 2003

    • The percentage of day surgery cases varied considerably between the acute NHS trusts, ranging from 40.2% at University College London Hospital NHS Trust to 82.7% at Kingston Hospital NHS Trust

    • Only 12% of trusts carry out 75% or more of the Audit Commission's collection of procedures as day surgery cases

    Embedded ImageThis month's Dr Foster's case notes were compiled by Paul Aylin, Susan Williams, Brian Jarman, and Alex Bottle at the Dr Foster Unit at Imperial College. Dr Foster is an independent research and publishing organisation created to examine measures of clinical performance.

    Embedded Imagewidth=50 border=0>References, information on data processing, and additional tables and figures are on bmj.com

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